‘Dig’ The Earth

It has taken a while but finally the pepper seedlings have come up.  Probably, I could have taken the tomatoes out about a week ago, but morning sickness had me doubled over and too tired to care much about seedlings.  If you look inside my fish tank greenhouse you’ll see a plethora of tomato plants and some new dark green pepper plants.  In blog hopping this morning I came across a post at Ken’s Trees about hardening off seedlings.  I wanted to share with you the schedule he came up with that I am going to follow for hardening off my little plants.

Day 1: 15 minutes in shade

Day 2: 30 minutes in shade

Day 3: 1 hour in shade

Day 4: 2 hours in shade

Day 5: 2 1/2 hours in shade, 1/2 hour in sun

Day 6: 3 hours in shade, 1 hour in sun

Day 7: 4 hours in shade, 2 hours in sun

Day 8: 5 hours in shade, 3 hours in sun

Day 9: 6 hours in shade, 4 hours in sun

Day 10: 6 hours in shade, 6 hours in sun

Day 11: 14 hours in sun location

Day 12: 16 hours in sun location

Since I live out in the country and there are some large trees and outbuildings on the property there are plenty of areas for both shade and sun.  To the north of our house where our back yard is it is very windy most days.  We do have a fence and a few little nooks for windbreak so the seedlings don’t get toppled.  Being inside the tank will also help prevent them from getting too windblown.  The days that will require sun exposure I will put the tank out on the east side of the house early in the morning.  This way the sun won’t be too hot and the temperature of the mornings is still fairly cool.  As the need for sun increases beyond a few hours I’ll have to move the tank to the front, or south, of the house and keep them well watered as they could dry out quickly in full sun.   Like Ken mentions in his post we don’t get full sun in any one spot in the yard for 14 to 16 hours (unless I want to drag the tank into the middle of the neighboring field) so I’d imagine by day 11 I’ll probably be getting ready to plant the little guys in the garden.

This is always one thing that makes me nervous in the growing process – repotting your new seedlings. Sherxr from Ur Resident Chef had a question about when and how to repot. Well, I’ve had my share of successes and failures in this regard, but I’ll share with you the process that seems to work best.

I’d wait until they have one set of true leaves before you move them to a pot (unless they are too crowded). As the seedlings grow make sure they have some airflow to help stave off dampening off fungus and also to make the stalk strong before you repot them. If you plan on setting the pots outside – like on your porch or a rooftop garden – harden them off before you repot unless they are overly crowded.

Hardening off is a process where the plants get accustomed to the conditions outdoors – gradually. Take them outside early in the morning for an hour or two so they get used to the air flow and sunshine. Increase the time they spend outdoors gradually as the days go by. At first keep them out of the heat of the midday sun or you’ll end up with dead seedlings fairly quickly. As When you are getting ready to repot let them dry out a bit and stop fertilizing. Get your pots ready with a good potting mix and use the first leaves that came up after germination to pull them from their current location. A pencil usually works well to lift the roots from the dirt.

For tomato and pepper seedlings if they have more than one set of leaves you can probably bury the plant up to the lowest set in the ground.  This gives the plant added stability as it grows.

Even though it seems I’ve had more failure than success at this endeavor it wasn’t a total loss.  There are some Japanese Irises that are growing; they are no more than 1/2 an inch tall, but they are growing.  Also, some of my daisy flats have germinated and are growing.  If they survive for me to transplant I think I’ll put them in a holding bed for this year and next year I’ll find a “permanent” place for them.

Things I’ve learned:

Using a container with a tapered top is not advisable unless you have large enough openings cut in the top and sides to allow water in.  Many of my little flats dehydrated and never germinated because of this problem.

With a wide mouth container be sure you’re openings are large enough for evaporation to escape – slowly.  You don’t want your flat to be too wet, but also you don’t want it to dry out too fast.

Use bleach when cleaning out old juice cartons.  The paper harbors juice and particles that will mold in moist conditions.

Try to keep your flats out of direct sun and make sure they are thoroughly moist – not sopping wet – constantly until the seedlings are ready for transplant.  I cut back on manually watering my coreopsis too soon and they died.

Oh, well.  Guess I’ll try again next year.

On an exciting side note:  It seems veggies and flowers aren’t the only things that will be growing this season.  We just found out we are expecting another baby.  They’ll be joining us in late December.  It will be a welcome addition to our lifelong garden of love.

Today I listed this blog on the Million Blog List. In less than a month they’ve gotten almost 1400 blog owners to voluntarily list their blogs. Their purpose is to see how long it will take to get 1,000,000 blog owners to do the same. At this rate it will take a long time (approx. 60 years). Considering this is a free backlink to your blog it is worth the effort. Why not go to millionbloglist.com and get your blog listed?

This blog is also listed at the Wiki Blog Directory

It is always nice to see a beautifully manicured lawn with a selection of ornamental and shade trees to accent the landscape. It is also equally frustrating to see a lawn where no consideration has been given for mature plant and tree size. The landscape looks more like a deformed jungle with half dead and unhappy plants. Unfortunately, the latter is the landscape which was thrust upon us when we moved in our house. Plants placed willy-nilly and trees placed too close to the house and too close to each other to look good.

When buying trees for your landscape and choosing the proper location for placement consider the following:

• Is the tree best suited for placement in full sun or will it do well in woodland type conditions?

Think about the light conditions on your property.  What existing tall trees are there?  Which side of the house gets the most sun?

• What are the water needs of the tree?

This can go hand in hand with the light requirements of the tree.  Depending on where the tree is placed it could dry out faster or get water logged.  Is your property prone to flooding or marshy conditions?  Do you live in a more arid area that would require watering by other than natural means?  Think about how much work you are willing to put into the tree to get it established in your yard.

• What is the mature size for the tree? How long will it take to get to that size?

It will be very important to know the height as well as the spread of the canopy of the tree. The tree will be equally large below ground as it is above ground. Keep this in consideration when deciding the placement of the tree near major features of your property – the house and foundation, the septic tank, poured walkways, the property line and any outbuildings.

A tree that looks beautiful near the house when it is young can become a severe maintenance headache once full grown.  Also, don’t forget to think about this when considering placing the tree in a grouping or near other trees.  There is nothing less attractive than to see a tree’s canopy with a depression in it because it was placed too close to other trees.

• How dirty is the tree?

Does the tree drop a lot of leaves, not only in the fall, but year round? What about in the spring – will the blossoms turn in to a brown, mushy mess when they fall from the tree?  What about shedding bark and branches?  If you like being outdoors and don’t mind yard cleanup then these will not be issues for you.  If you like to have your yard clean without an excess of work you would do well to research these points before you buy a tree.

I guess you could call this recycling. My husband’s cousin’s widow gave me a 10 gallon fish tank that she said she was just going to throw away. It was practically brand new and in perfect condition. So, I couldn’t turn it down. The filter that came with it was very poor quality and insufficient for the needs of a fully stocked freshwater tropical fish tank. No wonder they couldn’t keep any fish alive in it. Anyway, after about a year of trying to keep it going with fish they all died and I turned it into a greenhouse for starting my seeds instead of throwing it out. I figured it has the special aquarium/grow light type lamp and it would hold heat and moisture well; it should work.

I used some of the newspaper pots that I made for my winter sowing project for this greenhouse. I fit in 15 rows of 8 mini pots each with orange juice carton pieces as dividers and markers. This is what I planted between April 23-25, 2008:

Date Planted	Row	# Planted	Bought/Rec’vd	Type	Common Name
4/25/2008	1	4	11/8/2007	Fruit	Tomato, Tiger-Like, IND, 70+ DTM
4/23/2008	1	5	11/8/2007	Fruit	Tomato, Costoluto Genovese, IND, 90 DTM
4/23/2008	2	4	11/8/2007	Fruit	Tomato, Italian Market Wonder, IND, 75 DTM
4/24/2008	2	4	11/8/2007	Fruit	Tomato, Olena Ukrainian; IND, 85 DTM
4/23/2008	3	3	11/8/2007	Fruit	Tomato, Bonny Best; IND, 72 DTM
4/24/2008	3	3	11/8/2007	Fruit	Tomato, Livingston’s Golden Queen, IND, 78 DTM
4/23/2008	3	3	11/8/2007	Fruit	Tomato, Cosmonaut Volkov; DET, 75 DTM
4/23/2008	4	9	10/23/2007	Fruit	Tomato, Assorted
4/25/2008	5	9	11/8/2007	Fruit	Tomato, Marglobe VF, DET, 75 DTM
4/24/2008	6	9	10/23/2007	Fruit	Tomato, Speckled Roman Heirloom
4/25/2008	7	9	2003	Fruit	Tomatillo, Mexican Husk
4/23/2008	8	9	4/15/2007	Fruit	Tomato, Jelly Bean Hybrid, Indeterminate
4/25/2008	9	9	9/30/2007	Fruit	Tomato, Delicious
4/25/2008	10	9	2003	Fruit	Pepper, Chile Bola
4/25/2008	11	9	2004	Fruit	Pepper – Ancho/Poblano
4/25/2008	12	9	2003	Fruit	Pepper, Cayenne
4/25/2008	13	9	2004	Fruit	Pepper – Jalapeno Early
4/25/2008	14	8	2004	Fruit	Pepper – Marconi Red
4/25/2008	15	9	2004	Fruit	Pepper – Serrano

 

I watered the whole thing with a pint of water with 2 baby aspirin dissolved in it. Supposedly the aspirin is going to aide in germination and ward off dampening off.

On Monday of this week I was searching through the “barn” and found an old waterproof lamp that’s made for a 15 watt bulb to give heat. I wasn’t going to use it for it’s original enclosure so I brought it in, cleaned it up and hung it inside the fish tank greenhouse as close to the top as I could get it. It keeps the temperature in there a steady 72 F. Both the aquarium light and the heat light are kept on 24-7.

It’s paid off already. I was misting the little pots and noticed that I have three sprouts – 1 of the Marglobe Tomato and 2 of the Speckled Roman Heirloom Tomatoes. In the picture you can barely see them so I’ve circled them in green. Hopefully once their baby leaves unfurl I’ll get a better picture. Not bad for only 5 full days in the tank and 3 under the heatlamp.